DONALD TRUMP might fail to win a second term as US President due to coronavirus according to an American columnist.

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Michael A.Cohen of the Boston Times says the disease will cause “severe” disruption in the US and has used an analysis of a spate of the shark attacks in 1916 to explain why Trump’s re-election chances might be damaged. The 2017 book ‘Democracy For Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government’ by Larry M. Bartels and Christopher H.Achen looked at the deaths of several teenager at the hands of sharks in July 1916. Mr Cohen explained: “With sharply declining tourism revenue, and no system in place to prevent shark attacks, local communities turned to the federal government for help.”

In the 2000 US election, Al Gore, the incumbent vice-president to Bill Clinton, lost 2.8 million votes in states with weather conditions that were “too wet or too dry” according to calculations for the book.

Speaking to Mr Cohen, Mr Bartels noted Mr Wilson did not face much criticism over the Spanish Flu outbreak.

He says this was because of a lack of a clear link “between the president and the disaster”.

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But, he warned: “Incumbents do get blamed, whether deserving or not, because someone succeeds in tying the disaster to them.”

Mr Cohen added: “The more the new coronavirus outbreak, and the government’s response to it, becomes politicised, the worse things are likely to turn out for Trump.

“Since Trump has already gone out of his way to blame Democrats and the media for exaggerating the potential impact of the virus, the politicisation train appears to have left the station.”

He concluded: “If Covid-19 causes major dislocations, Trump will inevitably pay a price for any resulting economic slowdown, even if blame for the underlying pandemic can hardly be placed at his feet.”